Jonathan Demme

Jonathan Demme (February 22, 1944 – April 26, 2017) was an American film and television director, producer, and screenwriter. He began his career under B-movie producer Roger Corman and gained recognition for his casually humanist films like Melvin and Howard (1980), Swing Shift (1984), Something Wild (1986), and Married to the Mob (1988). In 1991, he directed the psychological horror film The Silence of the Lambs, which won five Academy Awards. Demme continued to produce acclaimed films, such as Philadelphia (1993), Beloved (1998), The Manchurian Candidate (2004), and Rachel Getting Married (2008). He also directed popular concert films like Stop Making Sense (1984) and Neil Young: Heart of Gold (2006).